Why we are here: Por qué estamos aquí – In memory of our beloved and late brother David McPhail – en memoria de nuestro amado y difunto hermano David McPhail

Why do we vigil at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond?

We do this to stand in solidarity with the 150-300 people being held here for deportation and the thousands held in 250 detention centers across the country. We know that many have not been convicted of any “crime”, but are charged with a civil immigration offense. We know that detained here and facing deportation are asylum seekers, green card holders, and long term residents. Often the chief breadwinner is taken away, putting children and families in economic jeopardy. We know that ICE’s implementation of our immigration laws makes communities insecure. THEREFORE…

We come here each month, to call attention to our government’s wasteful spending of resources, deporting 315, 943 in FY 2014 (865 people a day), while failing to address root causes of migration. We seek to stop this system of detention and deportation and change our nation’s policies.

We know that all the deportees held here have families, most came not just for a better life, but to survive and support families. Many have fled terrible violence and now face it here, in another form. And now, the children have come, many to reunite with families already here…. and even they face expedited deportation processes.

We do this to give moral and spiritual support to the families whose loved ones are being held here. We know their trauma can be deep and their lives filled with fear. We seek to give practical advice and counsel on legal, medical, food and housing issues and to be a friendly face. And we also do this to provide opportunity for people directly impacted by our detention and deportation policies to share their truth – to give their testimony so that they know, they are not alone.

We pray, knowing that all our faith traditions call upon us to welcome strangers and aliens, for they are our sisters and brothers and our families, like them, we were once strangers and aliens in this land.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you all this morning. It is an honor to worship with this community that is seeking justice.

In this season of long nights, there are many things that can be said about light. God is light. When God created the universe there was light and light was a part of all things being created and creating. Light releases energy into living things and life absorbs light in order to grow and flourish. Nearly all the energy in the world is produced by light. Stars in the distance glow with light. This glowing is about our pasts and our futures coming together. This glowing is our dreams. This glowing is hope. This glowing is freedom.

When people are taken from their families, communities, and homes, locked away in jail cells and deported, they are being told that the light does not belong to them. We stand here together this morning to say this is a lie. We stand here to say that light is the power that connects us, the energy that binds us. In our prayers, in our silence and in our shouting, we declare that light is solidarity. Light is what is created when we stand with one another. When we show up day after day bringing warmth, love and shelter for one another.

I want to share a story with you about light and solidarity. On November 25, people from across the Bay Area participated in a direct action interfaith worship service outside of the Alameda County Courthouse. The action was tied to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, with the specific purpose to call District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to drop the racist criminal charges being held against the #BlackFriday14.

For those unfamiliar with the #BlackFriday14—they are a group of all Black activists who chained themselves together on a BART platform to prevent trains from moving at the West Oakland station. Their action occurred during the prime shopping time on Black Friday, 2014. The reason for this action is clear: the social, political and economic systems in the USA are killing Black and Brown people every day. These killings must stop.

On November 25, I had the honor of being among the 14 interfaith leaders who occupied the inside of the courthouse. About an hour before the Sheriff Deputies arrested the 14 of us, we were joined by people who had been gathering and worshipping outside the courthouse. The gathering consisted of mostly Latino/a labor workers and union organizers. From the back someone yelled out, “¡Si, Se Puede!” Soon, the crowd in the courthouse started clapping their hands, stomping their feet and shooting, “¡Si, Se Puede, Si, Se Puede!” The lobby of the courthouse was vibrating. I believe that what we created in that moment was Light. I believe that in that moment, the labor workers, the faith leaders and all the gathered activists and supporters felt this is the world we can create. We can, moment by moment, voice joined to every other voice, become the light in the world that we have been waiting for. ¡Si, Se Puede!

Yesterday news broke that after a year of court dates and protests, the District Attorney has finally dropped all criminal charges against the #BlackFriday14. The news came as a glimpse of light in a time of very long nights.

I share this story with you because I think light is what happens when we stand with one another. I think light is what happens when we believe in the depths of souls that for my life to flourish, your life has to flourish. I share this story with you because “¡Si, Se Puede!,” “Yes We Can,” when we open our doors to the stranger and we see the stranger as God. ¡Si, Se Puede!, when we live as though there is always room at the table for more to join. ¡Si, Se Puede!, when we declare that no government has the power to try and take the light away from people.

In this season of long nights and waiting for a new day and new life, may we feel the warmth of our bodies praying with one another and with God’s Beloveds who are locked away and being deported. Over 2,000 years ago, the Mother Mary, carrying the unborn baby Jesus in her belly, went from door to door seeking a place of safety and rest. Today, may we know the courage it takes to go in search of a new home and the fierce commitment necessary to build a new home. May we know that in the long nights, we stand together. And may our light burn bright. Together. United. ¡Si, Se Puede! Amen.
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Gracias por la oportunidad de estar aquí con todos ustedes esta mañana. Es un honor participar en el culto con esta comunidad que busca la justicia.

Prayers of the People: Oraciones del pueblo
What should we pray for this morning? ¿Por qué cosas deberíamos orar esta mañana?

Litany:
In this season of short days and increasing darkness, may you open our hearts to the light of your presence.
R. Open us to your light, dear God.

In this season of expectancy, where we wait for the hope of your justice to come to places of darkness, may you open our minds to the light of your presence.
R. Open us to your light, dear God.

In this season of uncertainty, where countless families and children around your world are desperately seeking refuge and are being denied welcome, may you open our souls to the light of your presence.
R. Open us to your light, dear God.

In this season wandering, may those who are escaping the ravages of war and starvation find shelter and sustenance. May the land in which they seek refuge welcome them and treat them with hospitality. May those who are seeking to stop the threats of violence against them find a peaceful and healing place.
R. Open us to your light, dear God.

In this season of new life, may all be given the courage to see your Beloved face, your real presence, in the faces of those who have great need. May we hear in every story, the story of your Beloved dwelling in our midst and the possibility of Love that awaits.
R. Open us to your light, dear God.

Time of Noise: Momento para hacer ruido
We end our vigils with a time of noise! We invite you here to make noise and to be as loud as possible, as we know people can hear us from the inside, and it makes them feel that we are with them.
Terminamos nuestras vigilias con un momento en que hacemos ruido. Los invitamos a todos a hacer bulla y a hacerla en la forma más ruidosa posible, ya que sabemos que los que están presos nos oyen desde adentro, y los hace sentir como que estamos con ellos.

Song/Canción: Noche de paz

Announcements / Anuncios

Song Sheet – cancionero

Song: Canción: Within our darkest night / En nuestra noche oscura

Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire
that never dies away, that never dies away,
Within our darkest night you kindle the fire
that never dies away, that never dies away.

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Would You Harbor Me ¿Me albergarás? Ysaye M. Barnwell
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew
a heretic, convict or spy?
Would you harbor a runaway woman, or child,
a poet, a prophet, a king?
Would you harbor an exile, or a refugee,
a person living with AIDS?
Would you harbor a fugitive or a slave?
Would you harbor a Haitian, Korean or Czech,
a lesbian or a gay?
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?

The worker comes down
almost dragging his feet
from the weight of his suffering,
it is heavy suffering;
suffering weighs you down.

Above he leaves his pregnant wife;
below is the city
and he is lost in its nonsense
today the same as tomorrow;
it’s his life with no tomorrow.

(recited)
“There the rain falls
It comes, that suffering comes
But if the rain stops
How is it that the suffering continues?
And when will hope ever come?

Children the color of my land
wearing all its scars
millionaires of parasites
and that is why the children
live so sadly in cardboard houses.

How happily the dogs live
in the exploiter’s house.
You are not going to believe it
but there are dog [training] schools
that give them education.
so they don’t to bite the papers,
but the boss
for years, many years
has been biting the worker.